Electoral fate of Rajnath, Sonia locked in EVMs

Maximum and minimum voting%age was reported from Jhansi (70.40%) and Rae Bareli (52.60%). Lucknow polled 54.35% votes.

Besides, three union ministers were in fray in this phase, including Sriprakash Jaiswal (Kanpur), Pradeep Jain 'Aditya' (Jhansi) and Jitin Prasad (Dhaurahra). P L Punia, the Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes is contesting from Barabanki.

Rajnath was facing a tough challenge from Congress' Rita Bahuguna Joshi. While Rajnath had been banking upon Vajpayee's legacy and the urban voters in Lucknow for victory, Joshi was hoping to get support from Brahmins, Muslims and the Uttarakhand diaspora.

Also in fray from Lucknow was actor-producer Javed Jaffery as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominee and Samajwadi Party's UP minister of state Abhishek Mishra, a former visiting faculty of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Jaiswal was locked in a contest with BJP's senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi, who was shifted from Varanasi to Kanpur. Jain had a face-off with BJP's firebrand leader and former Madhya Pradesh CM Uma Bharti.

The 14 constituencies are Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Misrikh, Unnao, Mohanlalganj, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Kanpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur and Barabanki. A total of 233 candidates, including 39 women, were in fray.

In 2009 polls, these constituencies had recorded 48% polling, which had improved to 61.56% in 2012 assembly polls. About 24.6 million electorates were eligible to vote.

In last general elections, Congress had won 6 seats out of these 14 seats, followed by Samajwadi Party (SP) 4, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 3 and BJP one.